Do you record meetings?
Hi all,
I wanted to share an unpleasant experience that I had last week. I am a first year analyst at a BB in London, I was in an introductory call between our client and a potential target for a buy-side project in which I've been staffed.
Since I am an analyst, my only contribution to these calls is taking notes. In important meetings in which I know I will be the only one taking minutes, I record the calls with my iPhone. I find recording the calls a safety net in case I miss something, so it helps me being in the call more relaxed. Besides, recording the calls helps me to provide a better quality notes. Obviously, once I have circulated the minutes, I delate the recordings.
I always thought it was a very common practise among analysts and new associates, however the other day an Executive Director passed by my desk and saw me recording a call. Once the call was over he texted me on teams to pay him a visit in one of the conference rooms. He yelled at me for nearly 15 minutes, one of the most embarrassing moments in my life, I honestly thought I was gonna get fired. He told me that for reasons of confidentiality and compliance what I did was wat off limits, and that I would be fired and reported to regulators I ever got caught again.
Do you guys also record calls sometimes for minutes purpose? Or is it just me that I have normalised something that apparently is a terrible practice.
I think the issue is more around people knowing they are being recorded - in the US in most states it's illegal to record someone without their knowledge. Someone might say something that they intended to be for a smaller group, or is an inappropriate comment they don't expect to get out, and the recording goes places it shouldn't. Not to mention info security problems.
If you have to record, it should either be through the official Zoom/Webex capability, or you should state a few times at beginning of call that it's being recorded.
I would try to avoid recording though and I don't think it's a common practice at all for the reasons stated above. Call notes are helpful to have but not the end of the world if you miss a sentence, you really don't need to write down everything that is said
With all that said, still think the director was being a bit harsh screaming at you like that
"in the US in most states it's illegal to record someone without their knowledge"
The opposite is actually true - most states have 1 party consent wrt to phone calls, with only a handful having 2 party consent. That being said, the rest of your advice is sound.
Yeah only 11 out of 50 states requires all party consent to recording. Most states including NY only require one party to consent (aka you)
If you’re not willing to tell everyone on the call that you’re recording, then you must also know you’re wrong to be doing it. It’s bad practice, and honestly it might even be illegal if they don’t consent to it
Don't do it again for your own sake. An intern used to do something similar and he got let go because of it.
I mean how detailed are these notes expected to be? Do you typically find yourself missing something?
It depends on the team in my experience. Sometimes they were very detailed like almost verbatim what was said on the call where the notes looked like a script. But on another deal, I would write 4-5 bullets for a 15 min meeting.
You should definitely get fired for recording a call without authorization and your Director should get fired too for not reporting you to compliance.
Recording a call without warning is a very serious offence that could lead you to not only get fired you, but also get banned from the Financial Services industry, and probably take you a few years in prison.
Additionally you're exposing your bank not only to get fired by the client, but also to multibillion sanctions and to a significant reputational risk.
This has got to be sarcasm right?
Edit: Ok I do realize he was being sarcastic no need for monkey shits
lmao double L
Chill bro! The kid just recorded a call to take some notes and already got yelled at.
He/She is not Osama Bin Laden.
Just take notes live? How much time are you wasting re-watching already boring calls to refine call notes, no one cares that much.
ha you have not met my hardass associate who wants detailed minutes of every call and weekly which NO ONE INTERNALLY EVEN READS
Very surprised with how overreacting are some of the responses. Maybe in the US this is a very serious thing. In my opinion is not a big deal as long as you never share the recordings, and you delete them as soon as you circulate the notes.
I found this practice quite common among analysts in the European Bank I used to work in Paris. However, people who I know that did the same thing used to do it when they worked from home, not at the desk where everyone can see you.
Is a practice that may be useful, but you don’t do it in front of senior staff.
Maybe the regulations/laws about this are much more lax Europe, but in the US it’s definitely bad practice and even illegal.
Also, imo if you have to watch recordings of meetings to write the notes, it’s likely you’re spending too much time on it. It’s difficult at first, but once you learn what’s important to write down and get accustomed to focusing on the key details during a call, it becomes very easy to do. Makes it harder that nowadays students likely don’t have very developed note-taking skills due to recorded lectures in their courses
omg
lol that is so fcking illegal - recording without the other party's knowledge or consent (source: studied law in undergrad)
In reality, very few people are going to nickle and dime the quality of your call notes. It's better to miss a few sentences than put your career in jeopardy
Everyone here is such a narc… when WFH I record everything. 75% of the time no one asks for notes, so I just record the meeting and transcribe notes when asked for them on 2x speed (“sorry just cleaning them up quickly, can send shortly”). Doesn’t hurt anyone if no one finds out…
Its illegal, and someone should be taking notes on every call in general (intern) - Put yourself in the clients shoes
stop being a clown
Why not practice to take proper take notes from the start?
How do you even have the luxury of time, to re-listen to already passed meeting?
I've never heard of this concept ever.
Always... for many reasons.
seen people doing it in London (in particular DD calls, our levfin tended to call from recorded line so that even team members not on hte call would get the benefit of the verbatim).
However:
- personally think it's not great practice; not sure about the legal side of it but in my mind you should have all parties consent
- advice I got from an MD years ago on a high yield deal: "when the deal is done, burn your notes. they're worthless anyway as anything material should be in the OM"
Similarly to what was said above - how can you afford taking the time to re-listen to the call?
With my analysts, the standard practice was to flag what they missed and the rest of the team would fill the gaps before filing.
lol everyone records calls on their phone to take notes when WFH especially. on. important calls (roadshow questions, 4 hour management presentations with detailed Q&A where they dont give you the written responses, MDDs, etc.)
I wouldnt do this. I think its unethical to record a call without getting permission or stating that you are recording it
Recordings could be admissible in court. Its very unlikely that your recording would ever end up in court and that ppl would even know to ask you to turn it over for evidence but if I was an MD the mere fact that a recording of me was somewhere without my knowledge that could be brought against me in the future would drive me insane. Theres a reason why ppl call / have meetings and not just write things in emails
I think people are posting good advice on not doing this because of legal/consent reasons. And I think everyone should follow that advice.
But there is another element that is being missed here and I'm positive it was part of the EDs concern (and rightly so):
Most recordings that happen on your phone (videos, voice, images, whatever) are hitting cloud services and you essentially lose the control/confidentiality of that data. You are creating a security risk as well as a competitive risk to your company. I really can't think of a large company that I've worked for in the recent past that doesn't forbid the use of your chosen recording method for this exact reason. In the EDs mind you were jeopardizing the deals discussed during the meeting because once they are on cloud services what's to keep your competitors from accessing that info? Virtually all mobile/app companies are complete scumbags - I can assure you they are using your data and it's a massive mistake for you to have acted in this manner.
Correct, the issue here is on various fronts:
- compliance on the infrastructure used to keep information.
- private data concerbs
- consent for recording and jurisdiction, the more if it is a cross border deal
- in general not a very professional practice. Not many executives are willing to be recorded, even more so on sensitive (perhaps MNP) info
That others do it does not preclude you for following the guidance provided and explicitly made now by your manager. That being said, certainly not a reason to yell at you for 15'.
As already suggested, take your notes, not all sentences are key (keep it to the essence), and where needed flag any gaps for the team to chip in and complete. You'll be fine.
Imo: yellow card, not to worry but for the take away
I'm with you on this for most of it, but I'm OK with the 15 minutes of bashing. IMO it presents our intern friend the opportunity to learn and grow from this and reply, "Yes sir, I will improve". This is simply one of those situations you have to realize you were in the wrong, take your licks and come out stronger.
If that doesn't sound appetizing, think about the alternative. If we agree that the intern missed both the consent and private data concerns, they give the impression that they are naive to the world and present a liability to the team. Fast forward a few months to the bottom bucket review where it says, " . . . need you to see the bigger picture . . .". That doesn't sound appetizing at all, but that's exactly what you get when the ED doesn't chew you out.
The key is to record on a personal device and don't tell anyone. Theoretically, the biggest violation would be the fact that the recording wasn't preserved. Banks have to preserve records etc, so if you record and delete, you're destroying records. It is sort of like why there was a big texting issue at JPM - they weren't recording the text messages properly.
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This is very illegal
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